This invention concerns vehicular power units of the type comprising an overhead camshaft internal combustion engine and an automatic stepless speed change gear which has at least one pair of expansible pulleys connected by a belt.
The arrangement of the components of the power unit takes up a considerable amount of available space on the vehicle. If the engine is situated in the front and drive is transmitted to the rear wheels, then there are no difficulties. If, on the other hand, front wheel drive is required from a front-mounted engine the available space for the speed change gear is limited and the lay-out of the power unit system becomes very difficult. This difficulty results in the main from the fact that in stepless gear changes of the aforesaid type a limit has to be imposed upon the distance between the driving and the driven pulley, so as not to induce excessive heating of the belt.
An object of the present invention is to avoid the aforementioned disadvantage by providing a power unit of the above mentioned type, in which the components of the unit are so arranged as to take up minimal space in the vehicle, making the greatest use of the available space in the vehicle engine compartment, so as to allow the engine and the power unit to be installed in the front of the vehicle for front wheel drive.